LAS VEGAS—Approximately 125 people attended Hospitality Design’s Green Day here at the Sands Expo and Convention Center on Wednesday, May 13. Attendance was down more than 50 percent when compared to last year’s turnout of 270. Those hoteliers, architects, designers and others who did attend were treated to a strong group of presentations by some of the lodging industry’s leading experts on green design, operations and product certification. Specific projects in focus ranged from MGM MIRAGE’s CityCenter to Starwood Hotels & Resorts’ recently opened Element hotels.
The day kicked off with a presentation by Jake Kheel, environmental director of the Punta Cana Resort & Club, a property located in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic. Kheel provided an overview of that region’s tourism growth and highlighted many of the resort’s environmental efforts. Punta Cana, Kheel said, is the fastest growing destination in the Caribbean with 48 hotels and 27,000 hotel rooms currently open. The Punta Cana Resort & Club includes a 1,500-acre ecological reserve. The property’s Ecological Foundation is now 25 years old. A research facility has been on-site since 2001 for the purpose of educating school children and others about sustainability.
Kheel posed the question, “Is sustainability relevant to tourism?” In response, he said, “In tourism, you are selling a place and an idea. The destination is the product. Sustainability could not be more relevant.”
The Punta Cana Resort & Club places a strong emphasis on supporting the local community. Organic gardens on-site produce vegetables that are sold to local hotels and homeowners. A beekeeping operation with 150 colonies of bees produces 400 gallons of honey each year. Locals man the operation.
Emphasis on Waste Management
Particular attention has been spent on reducing waste at the resort. A worm composting facility eliminates organic matter and the resort expects to save $120,000 this year thanks to recycling. Property owners are considering purchasing an anaerobic digester in the coming year. It would be used to also help break down organic material waste.
In a “Greening the Brand” session, presenters included Christopher Jones, senior vice president of development and construction, NYLO Hotels, Brigitta Witt, vice president, environmental affairs, Hyatt Hotels & Resorts, and Brian McGuinness, senior vice president and global brand leader, Specialty Select Brands, Starwood Hotels & Resorts.
Jones, one of the founders of NYLO, says three NYLO hotels are currently open, with another 45 at some stage of development. The main challenge in greening the brand, he said, has been striking a balance between capital costs, operating costs and green design. NYLO is a new-build brand that uses an all-concrete construction process to guarantee energy efficiency. Swimming pools use ozone to minimize the use of chemicals, energy recovery systems add efficiency to air-conditioning systems, and all NYLO hotels purchase renewable energy credits to help offset their environmental impact. Key card-based energy management systems help to reduce guestroom-related energy costs and all external lighting is solar powered.
In her presentation, Brigitta Witt emphasized that a hotel without a sustainability plan is a hotel without a future.
“Customers are demanding it,” she said. “Employees and prospective employees expect their employers to have these programs in place. Any company that does not look at energy costs and water costs is not focused. Sustainability is a fundamental business imperative.”
Five Parts to Green Strategy
The five areas of focus in Hyatt’s environmental strategy are employee education, waste reduction, energy and water conservation, supply chain, and design and construction. Witt said the biggest focus currently is on employee education. “We have green teams in all of our full-service hotels,” she said. “We just launched a program whereby every employee will receive eight hours of training on the core green strategies we are embracing.”
Witt added that Hyatt recently launched internal sustainable building guidelines and every hotel is currently being assessed for its carbon impact.
Starwood’s Brian McGuinness discussed Element, his company’s extended-stay brand that has made a commitment to build each hotel to LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) standards. Four Element hotels are currently open. Element hotels emphasize the use of natural light, utilize a saline product instead of chlorine in pools, feature dual-flush toilets and low-flow showerheads, Energy Star appliances and purchase 35 percent of electricity from renewable sources.
When asked about the cost of incorporating green technologies and products into Element, McGuinness said, “The actions we are taking today will typically pay for themselves in two to three years.” How is Element’s strategy working? McGuinness said the brand leads all other Starwood brands in guest satisfaction.
Focus on Green Product Certifications
A session on green product certification featured Heather Gadonniex, co-founder, Green it Group, Kim Gordon, director, TODL Green, Dr. Marilyn Black, founder GREENGUARD, Susan Hollingshead, community development, B Lab, and Stowe Hartridge-Beam, manager of indoor air quality, Scientific Certification Systems.
Gadonniex said there are currently more than 1,200 environmental product labels, making it a challenge for any designer or other specifier to know which ones to look for and trust. The reason certification is important, Gadonniex said, is to validate environmental claims, help vendors build brand trust and credibility, and to prevent greenwashing.
Kim Gordon provided brief summaries of some of the most well-known product certification labels: EPA WaterSense, GREENGUARD, Oeko-Tex Standard, Forest Stewardship Council, Green Seal, Cradle to Cradle, Sustainable Materials Rating Technology (SMART), and Scientific Certification Systems Indoor Advantage. Stowe Hartridge-Beam said most product certification programs are moving toward considering the entire lifecycle of each product.
“[For vendors], having certification is a foot in the door” when trying to sell products, Susan Hollingshead said.
During lunch, MGM MIRAGE’s CityCenter project was the focus, with presentations by Cindy Ortega, senior vice president, Energy and Environmental Services, and Bill Smith, president, MGM MIRAGE Design Group. Both presenters walked luncheon attendees through the project’s entire development process. The 76-acre “city within a city” is expected to open by the end of this year and is still on target to earn LEED certification. CityCenter will include a Vdara condo hotel; Mandarin Oriental hotel; Harmon Hotel, Spa & Residences; and Aria Resort & Casino.
According to the presenters, CityCenter will generate 30 percent of its own electricity through combined heat and power. The complex will employ 12,000 people. MGM MIRAGE recently had 140,000 people submit applications for the 12,000 positions. While Ortega and Smith did not address the financial problems the project has had, they did mention among their lessons learned that preparing f
